from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
"An army is coming," the boy said. "I had a vision."
"The desert fills men's hearts with visions," the camel driver answered.
But the boy told him about the hawks: that he had been watching their flight and had suddenly felt himself to have plunged to the Soul of the World.
The camel driver understood what the boy was saying. He knew that any given thing on the face of the earth could reveal the history of all things. One could open a book to any page, or look at a person's hand; one could turn a card, or watch the flight of the birds ... whatever the thing observed, one could find a connection with his experience of the moment. Actually, it wasn't that those things, in themselves, revealed anything at all; it was just that people, looking at what was occurring around them, could find a means of penetration to the Soul of the World.
everything is understood
and apparent phenomena are all the books one needs
- Sadhana of Mahamudra
~~~~
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Intuition
from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
"... The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything because it's all written there."
If you want to find the meaning
stop chasing after so many things
- Ryokan
~~~~
"... The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything because it's all written there."
If you want to find the meaning
stop chasing after so many things
- Ryokan
~~~~
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Relax And Pay Attention
Let us allow the Soul of the World to fulfil its mission, and if we can't help, the best way to collaborate is to pay attention to the simple things in life, the sunset, the people in the street, the reading of a book.
Paulo Coelho, Warrior of the Light
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Paulo Coelho, Warrior of the Light
~~~~
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Alchemist
Prologue from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Translated by Clifford E. Landers
The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.
The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.
But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.
He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
"Why do you weep?", the goddesses asked.
"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.
"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."
"But ... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.
"Who better than you to know that?" the goddesses said in wonder. "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!"
The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:
"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."
"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought.
~~~~
Translated by Clifford E. Landers
The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.
The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.
But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.
He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
"Why do you weep?", the goddesses asked.
"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.
"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."
"But ... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.
"Who better than you to know that?" the goddesses said in wonder. "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!"
The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:
"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."
"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought.
~~~~
Zero-Based Gratitude
From Jonathan Lockwood Huie's
Insights for Living Simply An Inspired Life
Perhaps you have heard of zero-based budgeting as a technique for governments, businesses, and occasionally individuals. Zero-based budgeting is in contrast to traditional incremental budgeting. In incremental budgeting, one starts with the budget for the last year, or other period, and prepares a budget for the next period based on the budget for the last period - incorporating whatever increases, or very occasionally decreases, are deemed appropriate.
Zero-based budgeting begins with a base-line of no expenditures, rather than the base-line of last year's expenditures. Each and every proposed expense must be justified on its own merits rather that falling back on the argument that it was in the last year's budget, and that everybody expects and demands it.
Most people's gratitude is incremental gratitude. If they receive a raise, a bigger house, a third car, a new love interest, or a healthy new baby, they are grateful. If they lose their job, are forced to downsize, have a tiff with their spouse, or have an illness in the family, they are disappointed and angry. Why disappointed and angry? Because they have not been blessed with as much today as they were yesterday.
Suppose our gratitude could be zero-based gratitude. With zero-based gratitude, we would be grateful for everything we had each day - regardless of whether it was more or less than yesterday. With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful for a warm comfortable one-bedroom apartment, even if I had a four bedroom house yesterday. I can be grateful for being able to walk, even if I could run yesterday. I can be grateful for all the people, the love, the food, the shelter, the services, the health, that I am blessed with today, regardless of what I had yesterday. With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful each day for the gift of life itself.
Further reading:
Make a Gratitude List
Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude
Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life
The only difficult part of this practice is remembering to do it...
~~~~
Insights for Living Simply An Inspired Life
Perhaps you have heard of zero-based budgeting as a technique for governments, businesses, and occasionally individuals. Zero-based budgeting is in contrast to traditional incremental budgeting. In incremental budgeting, one starts with the budget for the last year, or other period, and prepares a budget for the next period based on the budget for the last period - incorporating whatever increases, or very occasionally decreases, are deemed appropriate.Zero-based budgeting begins with a base-line of no expenditures, rather than the base-line of last year's expenditures. Each and every proposed expense must be justified on its own merits rather that falling back on the argument that it was in the last year's budget, and that everybody expects and demands it.
Most people's gratitude is incremental gratitude. If they receive a raise, a bigger house, a third car, a new love interest, or a healthy new baby, they are grateful. If they lose their job, are forced to downsize, have a tiff with their spouse, or have an illness in the family, they are disappointed and angry. Why disappointed and angry? Because they have not been blessed with as much today as they were yesterday.
Suppose our gratitude could be zero-based gratitude. With zero-based gratitude, we would be grateful for everything we had each day - regardless of whether it was more or less than yesterday. With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful for a warm comfortable one-bedroom apartment, even if I had a four bedroom house yesterday. I can be grateful for being able to walk, even if I could run yesterday. I can be grateful for all the people, the love, the food, the shelter, the services, the health, that I am blessed with today, regardless of what I had yesterday. With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful each day for the gift of life itself.
Further reading:
Make a Gratitude List
Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude
Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life
The only difficult part of this practice is remembering to do it...
~~~~
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Warrior of the Light
Paulo Coelho (Rio de Janeiro, 1947) prior to his career as a best-selling author, was a playwright, theatre director, hippie, and popular songwriter for some of Brazil’s most famous pop music stars, including Elis Regina and Raul Seixas. Shortly after, he worked as a journalist and as a television playwright.In 1986 Paulo Coelho walked along the Road of Santiago, an ancient Spanish pilgrimage. He would later describe this experience in The Pilgrimage, published in 1987. The following year, with his second book The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho has become one of the most widely read contemporary authors, an authentic publishing phenomenon - number 1 best seller in 29 countries.
Critics have specially praised his poetic, realistic and philosophical style, and "the symbolic language that does not speak to our brains, but to our hearts". His storytelling has the power to inspire nations.
Paulo Coelho is Special Advisor to the UNESCO programme "Spiritual Convergences and Intercultural Dialogues".
Warrior of the Light is his website, where he publishes short pieces such as this one:
The Four Forces
Father Alan Jones says that building our soul requires Four Invisible Forces, namely love, death, power and time. It is necessary to love because we are loved by God. It is necessary to be conscious of death in order to understand life better. One has to fight in order to grow - but without falling into the trap of the power that we obtain in doing so, because we know that such power is worth nothing. And lastly, it is necessary to accept that our soul – although eternal – is at this moment caught in the web of time, with all its opportunities and limitations.
First Force: Love
Rabbi Iaakov’s wife was always looking for an excuse to argue with her husband. Iaakov never answered her provocations.
Until one night when, during a dinner with some friends, the rabbi had a ferocious argument with his wife to the surprise of all at table.
“What happened?” they asked. “Why did you break your habit of never answering?”
“Because I realized that what bothered my wife most was the fact that I remained silent. Acting in this way, I remained far from her emotions. My reaction was an act of love, and I managed to make her understand that I heard her words."
Second Force: Death
As soon as he died, Juan found himself in a very beautiful place, surrounded by all the comfort and beauty that he had dreamed of.
A figure dressed in white came up to him and said, “You are entitled to anything you want.”
Enchanted, Juan did everything he had dreamed of during life. After many years of pleasure, he sought out the figure in white. He said that he had experienced everything and that now he needed a little work to make him feel useful.
“That’s the only thing I cannot get for you,” said the figure in white.
“But I’ll spend eternity dying of boredom! I’d much rather be in hell!”
“And where do you think you are?”
Third Force: Power
“I’ve spent a good part of the day thinking about things that I should not think about, desiring things that I should not desire, planning to do things that I should not do.”
The master pointed to a plant and asked the disciple if he knew what it was.
“It’s a belladonna. It can kill you if you eat the leaves. But it can’t kill you just by looking at it. Likewise, negative desires can cause no harm – if you don’t let yourself be seduced by them.”
Fourth Force: Time
A carpenter and his apprentices were traveling through the province of Qi in search of building materials. They saw a giant tree; five men holding hands could not encompass its girth, and its crown reached almost to the clouds.
“Let's not waste our time with this tree,” said the master carpenter. “It would take us forever to cut it down. If we wanted to make a ship out of that heavy trunk, the ship would sink. If we tried to use it to build a roof, the walls would have to be specially reinforced.”
The group continued on its way. One of the apprentices remarked, “Such a big tree and no use to anyone!”
“That's where you're wrong,” said the master carpenter. “The tree was true to its own destiny. If it had been like all the others, we would have cut it down. But because it had the courage to be different, it will remain alive and strong for a long time.”
Warrior of the Light, a http://www.paulocoelho.com.br/ publication.
Thanks also to David B. (Signs of the Times) for the link)
The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.
- Thomas Moore
~~~~
Monday, August 10, 2009
A Personal Opinion About Decision-Making
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is a quote I have found to be true. If you are clear about your goal - whether it be to get one row of firewood stacked, to become an orthopedic surgeon or simply to be a kinder person - if that goal is one to which you are truly committed, then it will happen. Not that it will happen by magic - what I believe is that if you are clear about what you want, then you will be able to discriminate between the choices and actions that will lead you towards that goal and the choices and actions which will lead you away from it - recognizing and responding to the messages that the universe always provides. And I believe that everything we do, every moment of our lives, is our own decision.
I never said you had to offer me a second chance
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
- Billy Joel
As someone long prepared for the occasion
In full command of every plan you erect
Do not choose a coward's explanation
That hides behind the cause and the effect
- Leonard Cohen
~~~~
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is a quote I have found to be true. If you are clear about your goal - whether it be to get one row of firewood stacked, to become an orthopedic surgeon or simply to be a kinder person - if that goal is one to which you are truly committed, then it will happen. Not that it will happen by magic - what I believe is that if you are clear about what you want, then you will be able to discriminate between the choices and actions that will lead you towards that goal and the choices and actions which will lead you away from it - recognizing and responding to the messages that the universe always provides. And I believe that everything we do, every moment of our lives, is our own decision.
I never said you had to offer me a second chance
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
- Billy Joel
As someone long prepared for the occasion
In full command of every plan you erect
Do not choose a coward's explanation
That hides behind the cause and the effect
- Leonard Cohen
~~~~
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